Haringey has the highest waiting list of the three North London boroughs at 12,826 households. This is much larger than other North London, compared to Enfield with 5,991 households and Barnet with 4,149.
Across all London boroughs, Haringey’s waiting list is the seventh highest, and second highest in Outer London behind Brent on 28,150 households.
Waiting times for properties of two bedrooms and more in the borough are comparatively long. For two- and three-bedroom homes, Haringey has the second longest waiting times in London at 2,592 days and 3,084 days respectively. For larger, family-sized homes of four or more bedrooms, Haringey has the third longest waiting time in London with 3,504 days.
This is contrast to single-bedroom homes where Haringey’s waiting time is below the London average at 572 days.
Haringey’s higher waiting lists and longer wait times may be linked to a low amount of space for development, with the borough’s high population density of 9,976 residents per square km and a total social housing stock of 27,263 homes managed by the local authority and private registered providers.
Haringey Council operates a choice-based lettings system where households accepted onto the housing register can bid for properties. As such the council’s housing allocations scheme is more simplified with three bands operated to reflect priority need. Band A is for households with urgent or the most critical housing need, reflecting health or welfare needs or severe overcrowding and housing quality issues. Band B is for high but not urgent housing need, while Band C is for households with a reasonable preference for housing allocation as identified but not as high priority.
Sources:
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Local Authority Housing Statistics data returns for 2022 to 2023
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Live tables on rents, lettings and tenancies; numbers of households on local authorities’ housing waiting lists, by district, England, from 1987
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Live tables on dwelling stock (including vacants); Dwelling stock by local authority and region, England, 2009-2023
- Office for National Statistics, Mid-Year Population Estimates, England and Wales, June 2023
- Greater London Authority, Land Area and Population Density, Ward and Borough data for 2023
- Sub-regions as defined by The London Plan
*A note on data sources. In order to provide comparisons of different local authorities total waiting lists, due to some boroughs not providing up to date information on the number of people on their social housing register we have used the most recent data (2022-23) published by MHCLG. Where boroughs provided us with more recent data, we have noted this.